Hardin-Simmons feels control slip away after player’s death

Hardin-Simmons senior
receiver Taylor Huff was struck and killed by a car in the pre-dawn
hours of Sunday.
Hardin-Simmons athletics photos

There is no real control over
loss. Things slip away in the shadows -- moments, meanings,
football games and good intentions.

Hours after Hardin-Simmons upset
previously undefeated Texas Lutheran on the football field
Saturday, Cowboys wide receiver Taylor Huff slipped away in the
dark of early morning.

The Fort-Worth Star Telegram
reported that Huff was walking on Ambler Avenue in Abilene, Texas,
in the pre-dawn hours of Sunday when he was struck and killed by a
vehicle. Huff, according to the report, was alone and died at the
scene.

Sports are supposed to prepare
players for life. Football players learn about preparation,
overcoming adversity, working with teammates. Enough film watched,
an extra hour in the weight room, a route run one more time in
practice; these things suggest control.

By Sunday morning, Hardin-Simmons
players and coaches had every reason to believe that they had
already encountered and overcome tragedy.

Retired head coach Jimmie
Keeling, who was hired to bring football back to Hardin-Simmons in
1989, was hospitalized Friday after a car wreck in Abilene left him
with a fractured vertebrae and broken ribs. Current Cowboys coach
Jesse Burleson, a 1999 graduate of HSU, played for Keeling. He
served as a graduate assistant under Keeling, then returned to his
alma mater as an assistant before assuming the head coaching
position upon Keeling’s retirement in 2010.

“This is I my DNA,”
said Burleson, whose wife, Lois, is also a Hardin-Simmons graduate.
“It really is. It’s the same thing we’re trying
to give to these kids. That they have now the same experiences I
was able to have and some of the other coaches were able to have
when they were here as players, you know with the success and the
lessons learned.”

After Saturday’s emotional
win over the Bulldogs, Burleson drove to Keeling’s house to
present his former coach with the game ball. The Cowboys have a
history of winning seasons that goes back 21 years. That streak
will end this fall, but Saturday’s win over the Bulldogs
offers at least an opportunity to finish at .500.

For Texas Lutheran, a team that
was counting on an undefeated run through the rest of the season to
earn a Pool B bid into the playoffs, the game could have spelled
the end of the postseason aspirations because of TLU’s low
strength of schedule. But it was a loss that came with a reminder
of how much bigger things that perfect records have a habit of
stealing away.

“We understand that
football is really important,” Bulldogs coach Danny Padron
said. “But it puts things in perspective when you’re
talking about people losing their lives and a young man that just
had his life cut short just makes you very much aware of, you know,
a short, a shortness of time that we have. So everything is brought
back into perspective. Football is important, but it’s just a
game and now we’re talking about life and death.”

While Padron’s team began a
five-hour bus ride back to Seguin, Texas, Saturday evening,
Burleson left a Cowboys team in high spirits.

Huff, he said, was in the locker
room the last time Burleson saw him

Hardin-Simmons' coach said
watching Taylor Huff mature and grow during his time with the team
is the reason coaches do what they do.

“He was happy as could
be,” Burleson said. “We just had a big win, and our
guys were, you know, excited and fired up and he was no exception.
He was happy as could be.”

Football coaches should have some
control; they make decisions and give instructions every day. But
Burleson had no control over the things that happened after the
Cowboys left the football field. He had no control over the death
of a senior he personally recruited out of Sam Houston High School
in Arlington, Texas. Burleson just received the phone call and
absorbed the news early Sunday. And Burleson couldn’t control
how that news was delivered to his team. By the time he gathered
the players at 2:45 Sunday afternoon, most of them were already
aware of the loss. Social media offers an instant outlet for loss.
And while he would have liked to have delivered the news himself,
he remains unsure what to say to his grieving team.

“There’s definitely
not -- there’s nothing in the coaching manual or step-by-step
guide on how to deal with something like this. It’s just, we,
we as a staff and we as a family, we just let them know that, you
know, this is a very difficult situation for anybody and
there’s going to be different stages that you go through with
shock and then searching for answers and there’s going to be
times whenever they’re mad and then go through all those
things hopefully into a place of recovery.

“And we try to explain
those things to them, but most importantly to stick to our faith.
That whenever we don’t understand why these things happen and
we want answers for those things, but basically we just …
God’s plan is much greater than we can ever possibly imagine.
That’s really the only comfort that you can have or that you
can give to those guys on those things.”

Keeling will
recover. The Cowboys will finish the season.
Hardin-Simmons hosts Louisiana College on Saturday. The Cowboys
returned to practice Tuesday; Burleson hopes the game and
preparation will give his grieving team a chance to focus on
something besides its loss.

“Everyone wants to win
football games and all those things, but it’s, you know,
that’s not really our purpose,” Burleson said.
“At least not here at Hardin-Simmons. Our purpose is to help
prepare these guys and hopefully really -- really teach them about
real life, about being, you know, a man and a better husband and a
better father someday and all those different things that really go
into real life. It is difficult to try to, to try to prepare, but I
also thing that it’s a positive to thing to where …
our guys, can, you know, not forget about Taylor and what’s
happened but maybe focus on something else for a little while to
kind of lift their spirits up and to get them going again. And to
hopefully keep pressing forward.”

The days between now and the end
of the season are still in doubt. Huff’s funeral was
scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday. Burleson said that his team will be
going, although a memorial for the player had previously been
planned for the same time.

Abilene police Sgt. Will Ford
told the Fort-Worth Star Telegram that no charges were expected to
be filed in Huff’s death.

Football season draws to a close.
In these final weeks, many teams will see their losses accumulate
into a disappointing end. For Hardin-Simmons, the team’s
losses on the field may be the least disappointing of all. Taylor
Huff, who started two games in 2011, finished his senior year with
three catches for 34 yards. He saw action in eight games, including
his final one, the win over Texas Lutheran. But the numbers start
to slip away in the memories.

“He was a
great teammate,” Burleson said. “Very unselfish.
It wasn’t about him.

“To just watch him progress
over the last couple of years, to watch him mature and grow,
that’s why we do this. That’s why we coach. Just to see
things like that. I think he was brought here for more -- for a
much, much bigger purpose than to catch touchdown
passes.”

Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

-- Texas Lutheran’s undefeated streak came to
an end Saturday against Hardin-Simmons.

The Cowboys
were shootout winners, downing the visiting Bulldogs 73-44 on
Saturday.

The
Bulldogs 7-1, 3-0 SCAC) led 6-0 on a pair of Tyler Brandenburg
field goals when Hardin Simmons junior Tevin Mitchell scored on a
5-yard run. The Cowboys (4-5, 2-3 ASC) never trailed
again.

The Bulldogs dropped out of the Top
25. The regular season ends with a visit from Howard Payne on
Saturday.

-- Trinity earned its first
SCAC win with a 58-20 victory over visiting Southwestern.
It was the Tigers’ second win over Southwestern in the last
month, but the first in conference play.

Desmond
King rushed for 121 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries for
Trinity (5-4, 1-1). Stephen Smith completed 20 of 29 passes for 260
yards and three touchdowns, getting picked off twice. Cody Sandman
caught four of passes for 140 yards and two touchdowns.

Connor Yorloff had three solo tackles,
including a sack for an 11-yard loss, and a forced fumble.
Linebacker Julian Turner returned a fumble to score in the final
period.

Matt Gillen
caught seven passes, good for 129 yards and a score for
Southwestern (0-9, 0-3), which led 13-6 early in the second
quarter. Taylor Fann had nine solo tackles and was involved in 2.5
tackles for loss.

The Pirates finish their first season with
a cross-country visit to Southern Virginia on Saturday.

Southern Athletic Association

-- Centre nearly played spoiler in the SAA on
Saturday as undefeated No. 19 Millsaps just held on to a one-point
victory, 28-27, in overtime.

The Colonels led 21-10 with 4:45 to play
in the third quarter. Majors quarterback Zak Thrasher rushed for a
touchdown and passed for the 2-point conversion, Millsaps recovered
the onside kick by Beau Brady, and Brady connected on a 39-yard
field goal attempt with 54 seconds remaining in regulation to send
the contest into overtime.

Thrasher hit Matt Wahl from nine yards out
for a touchdown in the extra period. Centre (6-3, 3-2) answered
with a 3-yard scoring pass from Heath Haden to Greyson Janeway, but
the 2-point attempt to win it all was fumbled away by Harry
Meisner to end the game.

Zander Romano recovered the onside kick
for the Majors. Romano also caught 11 passes for 152 receiving
yards and a touchdown. Thrasher threw for 318 yards, completing 24
of 42 attempts with two scoring passes and two interceptions.

Millsaps (9-0, 5-0) outgained Centre
422 to 258 in total offense, but the Majors were also penalized
seven times for 110 yards. Centre’s six penalties were worth
42 yards.

Zach Bell had two of the Majors’ six
sacks. Bell has 12 this season. Jeff Milner also had a sack on
Saturday, bringing his season total to 8.5. The two Majors
defenders lead the conference in sacks.

Less than two minutes into play,
quarterback Blake Box connected with Mike Edel on a 21-yard scoring
pass. The Lynx (7-2, 4-1) never trailed, pulling away in
regulation. Box threw for four touchdowns, completing 15 of 23
attempts for 184 yards.

Freshman tight end Charles Schneider
caught three of those throws to the end zone. Schneider finished
the day with four catches covering 52 yards.

Hendrix receiver Casey Caton had five
catches for 123 yards and a touchdown. Travus McMahon had nine
catches for 84 yards for the Warriors (3-6, 1-4), who finish their
first season of football against Sewanee at home.

Curtis Johnson threw for 86 yards and a
touchdown for the Tigers. Johnson also rushed 21 times for 71 yards
and a score. Cortez Brown had 14 carries for 73 yards and a
touchdown, as well as one catch for a 17-yard touchdown.

Alex Kops had nine solo tackles for
Sewanee (3-6, 2-3).

Sandin threw for 286 yards and a
touchdown, completing 20 of 36 attempts Saturday. Chris Lilly
reeled in eight catches for 165 yards for Berry (1-9, 0-6) as the
Vikings end their first season of football.

Saturday’s game was tied four times
and well into the fourth quarter. Zach Favre caught a five yard
touchdown pass from Jonathan Redd with 4:20 remaining in regulation
as the Choctaws tied it up at 28-28 on the Hunter Estess kick.

Neither team had managed to score more --
or less -- than seven points in a quarter before the Wildcats (6-3,
4-1) racked up 21 in the fourth.

Freshman quarterback Easton Melancon and
receiver Farron Jones connected for a 75 yard, go-ahead touchdown
on third-and10 with 3:57 to play. Ryan Montague ran in a score from
two yards out with nine seconds to play as Louisiana sealed the
win.

Melancon threw for 299 yards and four
touchdowns, going 18 of 24 with three interceptions. Montague had
21 carries for 107 yards and two rushing touchdowns, as well as two
catches, one for a score.

Ladarius Gardner had eight catches, two
for touchdowns, and 125 yards. Dominic Graham had eight solo
tackles to lead the Louisiana defense.

Redd completed 29 of 45 passes for the
Choctaws (4-5, 4-1), going 248 yards in the air for three
touchdowns and an interception. Keith Williams led the receivers
with nine catches for 92 yards and a score.

Louisiana College will travel to
Hardin-Simmons this weekend.

-- Howard Payne scored on its
first two possessions and went on to defeat Sul Ross State, 32-21,
on Saturday.

Yellow Jackets (4-5, 2-4) quarterback
Zachary Alvarado threw for 221 yards and two touchdowns, completing
18 of 26 throws. Alvarado also rushed ten times for 51 yards and a
score.

Senior Tristian Fuentes had eight catches
for 122 yards and both touchdowns.

Lobos quarterback Jerem Boatright was
eight of 18 for 117 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.
Del Wilson caught five passes for 78 yards and two touchdowns for
Sul Ross State (1-8, 1-4).

Brian Lester is a reporter in Florida. He has 14 years of experience at newspapers in Virginia, North Carolina and Ohio, spending 10 at The Courier in Findlay, Ohio. Lester also writes an Around the Region column for D3hoops.com and wrote Around the Great Lakes for D3football.com from 2012-14. He is a graduate of Eastern Illinois.